* Guest post by Brad Nelson
Fitness Myths Debunked
Fitness Myths #1 Ab workouts will reduce my pot belly.
Truth: You cannot ‘spot’ reduce.
No amount of ab work by itself will change the shape of your stomach. Just like the ‘Thigh Master’ will NOT shape your thighs. Your stomach will start looking trim and toned as soon as you alter your eating habits and reduce overall body fat.
Fitness Myths #2 Strength training will bulk me up.
Truth: Strength training promotes efficient use of your metabolism without adding bulky muscle.
Strength training is only one piece of the fitness puzzle. Females do not have the ability to gain muscle like the fitness magazines would have you to believe. The hormone differences between women and men are radically different and therefore women cannot gain muscle like men. You must add strength training two days per week if you want to maximize the efficiency of your workouts and your overall results. Strength training also increases bone density which is especially important in females.
Myth #3 Weighing in every day is the best way to measure progress.
Truth: Shift your focus from ‘weight’ loss to ‘FAT’ loss.
Taking measurements and a body composition test at the beginning of a weight loss program is more measurable and less discouraging than frequent weigh-ins.
Actually weighing in is one of the worst things you can do mentally for yourself on a regular basis. Also, by adding one pound of lean muscle you will burn five pounds of fat over the course of six months. That may not sound like much but what you added five pounds of muscle and burned 25 lbs of fat? That is a net loss of 20lbs. Moreover, you will look like an entirely different person.
Fitness Myths #4 I have to be sore the next day so I know I had a great workout.
Truth: Soreness is a result of tiny tears within your muscle and too much soreness means you are doing more harm than good.
When you start any exercise program you will naturally experience some level of soreness especially if you haven’t worked out at all in a long time. However after a month or so, you should not get to the point where you are sore after every workout. Some muscle soreness should be expected if you switch to different exercises.
Fitness Myths #5 I have to workout at least five days per week in
order to achieve results.
Truth: Your commitment will directly affect the results you seek, but you do not have to put in five days per week.
What you need to decide is the time you can realistically put into your workout. A word of caution: you must put in a three hour/ week commitment in order to achieve three/hour a week results! This is where most people fall short. They start out with gusto the first week or two and then because they haven’t seen any noticeable results, they quit. It takes 90 days of consistent habit changes in order to start to see significant results.
Fitness Myths #6 No pain, no gain.
Truth: Actually it’s the opposite. If you are experiencing pain, you will not see any fitness results.
There is a fine line though between pain (soreness) and pain (injury). You will be sore, but you should not workout so hard in the beginning that you injure yourself due to stupidity. Seek professional guidance (a personal trainer or some other fitness professional) if do not know what you are doing when it comes to an exercise program.
Fitness Myths #7 Aerobic exercise alone will help you lose fat by speeding up your metabolism.
Truth: You need a COMPLETE program without missing components.
You need a combination of strength, cardiovascular, and flexibility training for an overall complementary exercise program. One without the other two will lead to minimal results. Your metabolism will only begin to efficiently burn fat when you find the right combination of all three components.
Fitness Myths #8 Exercise has to be strenuous to be beneficial.
Truth: You should alternate easy, medium and hard days.
Every individual has a different pain tolerance. Use a scale of 1-10. One is lying in bed attempting to sleep. Ten is you are two seconds away from passing out. You should stay in between 5 and 8…every once in a while venturing outside of that range.
Fitness Myths #9 Exercise will keep me up all night.
Truth: Exercise will help you sleep better.
As long as you finish your workout 3-4 hours prior to bed, you will benefit from exercising at night. Exercise contributes to stress reduction and therefore will help you relax and get a restful night’s sleep.
Fitness Myths #10 Going to a gym is the only way to get in shape.
Truth: There are numerous ways to get in shape without going to a gym.
You could walk, ride bike, jog, follow an aerobics tape, or running after the dog are just a few possibilities of ways for you to begin an exercise program. However, most people find it easier to get results if they are motivated by people around them and find an ACCOUNTABILITY partner to work with.
Fitness Myths #11 Exercise makes you hungry.
Truth: Most of the time you will feel less hungry.
Usually after intense exercise you will find your body not wanting food as much. However, if you feel like eating you should. Just be aware of what you are consuming so you don’t sabotage the results you are seeking.
Fitness Myths #12 If I exercise enough, I can eat whatever I want.
Truth: You are what you eat.
This is more than a cliché. If you eat McDonalds on a regular basis, you will begin to take the shape of someone who eats fast food. Rocket science? No. Just plain common sense. Everything in moderation, including moderation.
Fitness Myths #13 My metabolism slowed down around age 30.
Truth: Your metabolism didn’t slow down. You got lazy and aren’t as active.
Actually you started gaining weight around age 30 because you are becoming less active. This is one of the monumental fitness myths. Daily exercise sends a message to your body to avoid storing unwanted and unneeded calories.
Fitness Myths #14 I can add hand weights to my jogging program and
reap the benefits of strength training and cardiovascular training at the same time.
Truth: Doing this will more than likely cause injury.
We, as Americans, tend to do too much too fast. We want results NOW. This will lead to more stress on the joints, tendons, and ligaments and greatly increase the chances of injury right now and possibilities of chronic injuries as well.
Fitness Myths #15 Muscle weighs more than fat.
Truth: Muscle is more dense than fat, therefore taking up LESS room.
One pound of muscle weighs the same as one pound of fat. Just as one pound of feathers weighs the same as one pound of bricks. The difference is in the VOLUME. Fat will take up A LOT more space than muscle.
Fitness Myths #16 Exercising at a lower intensity for a longer time burns more fat.
Truth: You burn more calories including fat calories when you exercise at a higher intensity.
The optimal way to burn fat is to do interval training. Interval training works like this: increase your heart rate to a high level for a minute, then back off the intensity for a minute; then back to the increase and so on until you’ve done 30 minutes of QUALITY cardiovascular conditioning. Quality training always wins over quantity training.
Fitness Myths #17 Running is the best way to get fit.
Truth: There is no best way to get fit.
The best way to get fit is to do something that YOU enjoy. It will become the best way for you to get fit because you are the one who will stick to the activity that YOU CHOOSE.
Fitness Myths #18 The best time to exercise is early in the morning.
Truth: There is no best time to exercise.
The best time to exercise for you is the best time for you to exercise. The majority of people who workout in the morning report that it is easier to stay on track with a program because during the day and after work, unexpected events come up which can dramatically alter your exercise schedule.
Fitness Myths #19 You should always do your strength training before cardio training.
Truth: Do what you prefer.
Either way is great (or engage in KETTLEBELL training so you get them at the same time ). Just make sure that you do both to ensure well-rounded exercise program.
Fitness Myths #20 You burn more fat if you exercise on an empty stomach.
Truth: Exercising on an empty stomach does not affect how you lose weight.
Actually, it may hinder it if you don’t have the energy to exercise. Even if you exercise immediately after you wake up in the morning, you should have something small to eat.
Fitness Myths #21 Stretching before working out improves workouts.
Truth: Stretching prior to workout actually decreases performance.
By stretching before a workout, you allow certain tissues to relax which is counterproductive to working out. This also increases your chances of injury.
Fitness Myths #22 If you’re not sweating, you’re not exerting yourself
enough.
Truth: We all sweat differently. So don’t sweat it!
Rate yourself on the 1-10 scale used in Myth #8. This is a much better way to determine the level you are working at.
Fitness Myths #23 Muscle turns to fat when you stop working out.
Truth: Muscle cannot scientifically turn into fat.
If you stop working out, most likely you will see your body change because muscle cell size will decrease while fat cell size will increase.
Fitness Myths #24 Sitting in a sauna helps you burn fat.
Truth: A sauna will cause you to lose water weight from sweat.
Saunas do not burn fat. Saunas cause you to sweat more. Will you lose weight? Yes. Will it be fat? No. Will it be water? Yes. Will you gain it back within 24 hours? Yes. Better off burning calories exercising.
THE ULTIMATE TRUTH:
Hard work and changing your lifestyle habits is the only way to see fitness results that will be permanent.
Brad Nelson is a nationally-known fat loss and performance expert based in Woodbury/St. Paul Minnesota where he owns and operates Kinetic Edge Performance, Inc. -a state-of-the-art legal torture chamber. He is relentless in his quest to find new sadistic methods to deliver creative ‘beatdowns.’ You have found Brad one of two ways-fate or some ill friend is playing a joke on you. Intuition tells you to indulge in Brad’s training style and witness your body remodel into looking great naked. Receive the FREE Report “10 Critical Mistakes Sabotaging Your Fat Loss Results” by registering for Brad’s Newsletter available here: http://www.kineticedgeperformance.com
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Susan here: how many of these fitness myths did you believe?
Your Coach,
Susan Campbell, MS, CSCS
P.S. If you are still confused and need a little extra help on the subject, click here to view a free fat loss presentation.
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{ 9 comments }
First, thought I’d let you know that I’m not getting any notifications that you’re responding to my comments; you might want to check your plugin for that.
Second, I mentioned it to her and she just listened, made that dismissive sound, and that was that. lol
As for the abs work, well, people talk about strengthening the core, but I really have no idea what that means. I lay on a bench at the gym, put my feet up some, and slowly do at least 150 crunches, making sure my back stays flat. But I do have back problems, and nothing I do is helping that. But I always thought tightening the stomach muscles helped shrink your stomach; that’s disappointing. Luckily, I’ve lost inches everywhere.
Twitter: tristanhigbee
November 4, 2010 at 4:28 pm
I think that this is the first fitness/workout post on a blog that I actually enjoyed reading! Thanks!
I hate working out in a gym; I think it’s the most boring thing known to man. I am, however, an extremely avid rock climber and have been for 12 years or so. As far as climbing goes, stretching beforehand definitely increases performance and NOT stretching can lead to injury. It’s far easier to pop one of your finger tendons when you haven’t warmed up, and warming up also decreases the lactic acid buildup in your forearms that can sabotage you on a harder climb. I guess it all depends on what your particular workout is.
Here’s another myth you could add to the list: “I was just born with a slow metabolism.” I hate it when people tell me, “You’re so lucky you’ve got a fast metabolism! You can eat whatever you want!” Pffff. I eat whatever I want because I go climbing for several hours a day multiple times a week while you sit at home and watch Lost!
Hey Tristan! Thanks for taking the time to comment. Glad you liked the post.
I think I need to clarify the stretching myth as you are not the only person who has commented on it. When we say that you should not stretch prior to activity, we are not saying that you shouldn’t warm up. Quite the contrary. It is the type of warm up that is important. Static stretching, which everyone believes they should be doing prior to activity, is not the best way to warm up. You should be doing an active warm up, meaning total body mobility exercises. This gives you more of a dynamic warm up, where you will use your muscles in more of a similar way to the activity you will be doing – static stretching simply tries to elongate a muscle. Mobility exercises stretches the muscle through a range of motion. This is much more appropriate and will better prepare you for the activity ahead. Try some body weight squats, spiderman climbs, and some pull ups before you climb next time and see if you feel any better prepared.
Well, I have to say that many of these are either kicking my behind mentally or that I’ve heard something slightly different from other sources, although I’ve also seen some of these recommendations before.
For instance, #1 almost tells me I shouldn’t even do ab work since it’s not going to reduce my stomach any.
#3 is interesting because fitness people say what you do, but psychologists say something different.
And #21; man, every gym teacher and my wife would kill me if I told them this was wrong. Of course, I’m going to risk it and tell her anyway.
There’s others, but I don’t want to hijack the post. Interesting stuff overall.
Thanks for the comment, Mitch. Regarding myth #1, you shouldn’t do ab work if you are doing it to flatten your stomach. That’s not what its for and it won’t work. If you want to strengthen your core, which you should, then you should od total body ab work vs traditional crunches and sit ups. They do more harm on your back and don’t strengthen your core nearly as much as other exercises do.
Regarding #3, I personally think weight in every day is fine, but the concept of concentrating on fat loss vs weight loss is valid. May not be the right argument for the myth.
And # 21, doing passive stretching has been shown in recent research to not do you any favors when it comes to performance and can lead to injury. However, active stretching and mobility drills can do wonders for you. It’s really just semantics. But I would love to hear how your wife responded!
Just wanted to comment that I love the nice huge graphic on your feed! Very attractive, I have to do something like that meself.
Regarding losing weight, I’ve lost 50+ pounds meself, so I know there is no one quick fix. It’s a lifestyle change and commitment.
Thanks for swinging by, Barbara. Congrats on such a great feat – losing 50+ pounds takes a lot of dedication and hard work! Care to share how you went about doing so with my readers? You’d be a great case study for them!
Twitter: lavenderuses
November 2, 2010 at 9:39 pm
Hi susan
Really enjoyed this guest post. Great job Brad. I love it when we have a myth busting post as so much out there is just garbage. Sadly a lot of people get conned although I think the media (here in Oz) is doing some myth busting in this area too. So we are slowly getting to realise that a healthy diet and exercise is a good thing for our health and well-being. So simple but of course the advertisers try and make it complicated so we will fall for their latest must-have gizmo!
Thanks for sharing. Definitely worth a retweet.
Patricia Perth Australia
Hey Patricia, thanks for taking the time to comment. Unfortunately, the fitness and supplement industries have to be 2 of the biggest conning industries out there. Lots of money to be made of of people being over weight, unhealthy, and unhappy with their bodies. We were just hoping to myth bust and make sure people know the truth. There are no magic bullets in life, and the fitness and supplement industries are no different.
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